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Evaluation ViewAttendees 1

Child /Adolescent - ADHD
Session Type:: Symposia

Symposium 74 - Novel Strategies for Promoting Treatment Engagement for Individuals with ADHD

Sunday, November 23, 2025
2:00 PM - 3:30 PM CST
Location: Strand 11A&B, Level 2
CE: 1.5

Keywords: ADHD, Treatment, Clinical Trial
Level of Familiarity: All
Recommended Readings: Evans, S. W., Owens, J. S., Wymbs, B. T., & Ray, A. R. (2018). Evidence-based psychosocial treatments for children and adolescents with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 47, 157-198.,   Chacko, A., Jensen, S. A., Lowry, L. S., Cornwell, M., Chimklis, A., Chan, E., ... & Pulgarin, B. (2016). Engagement in behavioral parent training: Review of the literature and implications for practice. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 19, 204-215.,   Sibley, M. H., Link, K., Torres Antunez, G., & Greenwood, L. (2023). Engagement barriers to behavior therapy for adolescent ADHD. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 52, 834-849.,   Chronis, A. M., Chacko, A., Fabiano, G. A., Wymbs, B. T., & Pelham, W. E. (2004). Enhancements to the behavioral parent training paradigm for families of children with ADHD: Review and future directions. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 7, 1-27.,   Sibley, M. H., Coxe, S. J., Stein, M. A., Meinzer, M. C., & Valente, M. J. (2022). Predictors of treatment engagement and outcome among adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: An integrative data analysis. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 61, 66-79.

Decades of research on intervention to improve outcomes for youth with ADHD have illuminated several psychosocial interventions that effectively reduce symptoms and impairment experienced by these youth and their families (i.e., behavioral parent training for children and organizational skills training for adolescents) (Evans et al., 2018). Despite the presence of effective interventions, many barriers exist to effectively engage, or participate in treatment after initial enrollment (e.g., Chacko et al., 2016; Sibley et al., 2023). These barriers are particularly pronounced among youth and families who face significant adversity (Chronis et al., 2004; Sibley et al., 2022), such as youth and families from marginalized groups.

Addressing engagement in intervention is a critical task for supporting positive outcomes for youth with ADHD and their families. As a result, researchers have focused on novel approaches to effectively engage youth with ADHD and their families in intervention that address barriers to engagement across development. These strategies include treating parents’ psychopathology prior to youth intervention (Chronis-Tuscano, et al.), utilizing a digital augmentation within school-based organization skills training (Capps, et al.), using peer delivery and involving parents in high school-based intervention (Van Dreel et al.), and providing intervention within primary care using community health partners to engage families (Mautone et al.). Across presentations in this symposium, presenters identify how strategies were designed to address barriers to engagement, particularly among diverse youth and families. Presenters will also describe results from clinical trials of each of these strategies and next steps in these lines of research. As presentations in this symposium span development and target various barriers to engagement in intervention for individuals with ADHD, the discussant will synthesize themes across presentations and highlight important implications for engaging diverse youth with ADHD and their families in intervention.

The presentations in this symposium are best presented together given the need to consider the complex contributors to treatment engagement across development for youth with ADHD. ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder that individuals experience their entire lives. As such, the symposium presents efforts to enhance treatment engagement across development. Further, because youth and families may experience a variety of barriers to engagement (i.e., logistical, cognitive, behavioral), it is important to discuss a variety of scientific efforts to enhance treatment engagement in one presentation. In this way, both practitioners and researchers will be able to identify strategies to consider and comprehensively address the variety of challenges to engagement youth with ADHD experience.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of this session, the learner will be able to:
  1. Identify three barriers to engagement in intervention for diverse youth with ADHD and their families across development.
  2. Describe four strategies to promote treatment engagement for diverse youth with ADHD and their families across development.
  3. List four future directions for research into enhancing treatment engagement for diverse youth with ADHD and their families across development.

Presentations:

  • 2:06 PM - 2:27 PM CST
    (SYM 74) Leveraging a Digital Augmentation to Enhance Treatment Engagement: Predictors of Engagement and Differential Effects in School-based Intervention for Youth with ADHD

    Speaker: Elizabeth Capps, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) – Case Western Reserve University

    Co-author: Aren J. Tucker, B.A. – University of South Carolina

    Co-author: AJ Matteis, M.P.S. – Children's National Hospital

    Co-author: Charity Majusiak, M.P.S. – Children's National Hospital

    Co-author: Qinxin Shi, Ph.D. – Texas Christian University

    Co-author: Amanda Steinberg, B.S. – Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

    Co-author: Melissa R. Dvorsky, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) – Children's National Hospital

  • 2:27 PM - 2:48 PM CST
    (SYM 74) Treating Parents with ADHD and Their Young Children (TPAC): Does Medicating Parents with ADHD Yield Better Behavioral Parent Training Attendance and Skills Practice?

    Speaker: Andrea M. Chronis-Tuscano, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) – University of Maryland

    Co-author: Nadia Bounoua, Ph.D. – University of Maryland- College Park

    Co-author: Donna Marschall, PhD (she/her/hers) – Children's National Hospital

    Co-author: Christina Danko, Ph.D. – University of Maryland- College Park

    Co-author: Joyce Lui, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) – Concordia University

    Co-author: Daria Taubin, B.A. – University of Maryland- College Park

    Co-author: Adelaide Robb, MD (she/her/hers) – Children's National Hospital

  • 2:48 PM - 3:09 PM CST
    (SYM 74) Supporting Engagement in Care for Economically Marginalized Families of Children with ADHD: Partnering to Achieve School Success

    Speaker: Jennifer A. Mautone, ABPP, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) – University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine

    Co-author: Alex Holdaway, Ph.D. (he/him/his) – Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

    Co-author: Thomas J. Power, ABPP, Ph.D. (he/him/his) – Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

  • 3:09 PM - 3:30 PM CST
    (SYM 74) Enhancing Engagement in a Peer-delivered Intervention for High School Students with ADHD: A Randomized Controlled Trial

    Speaker: Shauntal Van Dreel, MSW (they/them/theirs) – Washington University in St. Louis

    Co-author: Shauntal Van Dreel, MSW (they/them/theirs) – Washington University in St. Louis

    Co-author: Margaret Sibley, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) – University of Washington School of Medicine

    Co-author: Stefany Coxe, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) – Cedars-Sinai

    Co-author: Ben Aaronson, Ph.D. (he/him/his) – University of Washington School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics

    Co-author: Alexa Matlack, Ph.D. – University of Washington, Seattle

    Co-author: Mercedes Ortiz Rodriguez, MPH (she/her/hers) – Fred Hutch

    Co-author: Joshua M. Langberg, Ph.D. – Rutgers University

    Co-author: Aaron Lyon, Ph.D. (he/him/his) – University of Washington

    Co-author: Taylor Rainwater, M.Ed. (he/him/his) – Seattle Public Schools

    Co-author: Brooke Kircher, M.Ed. (she/her/hers) – Seattle Public Schools, Garfield High School